Seasonal racing returning to Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound

After years of holding races year-round, the Bonita Springs-based track will return to a seasonal schedule this summer, when kennel owners rotate to Flagler Greyhound track in Miami. The dogs will return to Bonita the next winter.

"We're running a circuit," said Izzy Havenick, vice president of Southwest Florida Enterprises, which owns both tracks.

The change may be another sign that state parimutuels are weaning themselves from a reliance on dog racing, which has fallen in popularity as Indian gaming surges.

Yet, kennel owner Jim Blanchard said that if things go as planned, the merger will improve the quality of racing by lifting purses.

"This will probably be the best circuit by far in the state of Florida," he said. "When that happens, you'll see the best dogs in the state of Florida."

The change may go into effect in June, said Havenick. Race schedules must be cemented in February. The Bonita Springs track will see racing in winter months, anywhere from December to June, said Blanchard.

Havenick framed the decision as a response to seasonal attendance and declining revenues.

"Naples is busy in the winter and not so busy in the summer," he said. "So this will be something to try and create a new little buzz about the business and try to make it exciting, but at the same time -- because of everything else going on in the world -- try to keep costs down."

Card rooms at the Bonita Springs-based track will remain open full-time. The track previously ran races on a half-year schedule until the Legislature required full-time racing for card rooms to stay open. Lawmakers dropped that stipulation in 2004, Havenick said.

"This (decision) is one of those things that just got put on the back-burner for a point of time," he said.

Greyhound racing handles have fallen in recent years across the state. In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the races at Naples-Fort Myers pulled $32.2 million, a 13-percent drop from the previous year and a 23-percent decline from the $42 million handle of 2005-2006.

The speed of the decline may be increasing in the current economy. Racing money from November 2009 was down 22 percent from the previous year at Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track. At Flagler, the drop was nearly 19 percent.

Card room revenues have increased as greyhound hauls drop, although total rakes also appear to suffer in the downturn.

For Blanchard, a mainstay at the Bonita Springs track, the move is a return to old-school greyhound racing, the kind that led him across Florida when he cut his teeth in the sport.

"We always came to Naples in the winter time," he said. "I came for the first time in 1980, and I loved it."

With the advent of year-round racing, the quality of dogs fell, and so did the public's attention to the sport, he said. Racing became less special when it was readily available, and fans stopped following the best dogs, Blanchard explained.

Most kennels with dogs at Naples-Fort Myers also race at Flagler, both Havenick and Blanchard said. All but a few of the kennels will make the transfer to the circuit, they said.

Blanchard believes the merger will not result in a glut of dogs needing adoption, despite the drop in running space. Most kennels are small, he said, and the larger operations will move weaker dogs elsewhere.

"The weaker ones will start to show it, and you'll start to thin those out to smaller tracks," he said.

As the parimutuel industry struggles, it continues to eye lucrative Class III games such as blackjack and Vegas-style slots. Parimutuels in Broward County and Miami-Dade have received permission from the state and are beginning to offer the games.

Flagler just finished a multi-million expansion that included the addition of Vegas-style slots.

Legislators are currently considering whether to limit further expansion to the Seminole Indian Tribe or allow other parimutuels to take similar steps. The stakes of any agreement -- and the volume in negotiations -- seems to grow with time.

Greyhound racers, meanwhile, are trying to stay in the conversation. Blanchard said racing has been proven to augment slots revenues and needs to be given a place in any upcoming deal.